GIDDINGS—Lady Dog basketball’s fate came down to their post-season opener’s final seconds, with a catch-and-release from senior Abby Dickerson from well behind the three-point line as her team trailed 51-49 to Flatonia.
It didn’t go in, knocking Thorndale out of the playoffs. But her father, THS head coach Bradley Dickerson, said after the game that his team had the right mentality in those final seconds, the shot just didn’t go in the hoop.
“I told them if it’s a twopoint game, let’s attack the basket and try to get fouled,” he said. “But if we have an open three, let’s take it.”
“That was a pretty deep one we took, but things happen. The game speeds up, people get excited and that’s the shot we got,” he added. “Abby has made that one this year and she didn’t tonight. We had opportunities to make some plays tonight and didn’t. You give Flatonia credit, because they did.”
Dickerson, while having a lot of praise for his players and their maturity, also noted how important it is to treat the entire game with urgency, because it’s the little things that add up and decide whether a team wins or loses.
“Everyone thinks the last 10 or 20 seconds are an emergency do or die,” he said. “But if you treat the first minute of the game, the second quarter, or the first three minutes of the game the same way, or you don’t block out or let a girl run by you and shoot a lay-up, those things decide the game too.”
Abby Dickerson led the team with 14 points, while Kassidy Eubanks put up 13.
Despite the first round exit, Thorndale’s season was considered successful, especially after a season-ending injury to starting point guard Bailee Baker in October forced the Lady Dogs to scramble before their 202223 campaign even began.
Baker, who verbally committed to Oklahoma Wesleyan University this past August, got in a bad car accident later in the fall, breaking her left femur and tear in her right ACL, MCL and PCL.
“Life’s more important and Bailee is very fortunate,” Dickerson said. “We’re just happy for her that things turned out the way that they did.”
“But as it relates to basketball, we lost some games in October before we even started playing,” he said. “Because when you lose a player like that, it affects everything we do.”
Dickerson said that without Baker, many key players had to play different roles.
“It moved Kyndal Robinson off of her natural p osition and she had to play point. She did a great job this year. If she doesn’t have to do that and Bailee is still out there, it obviously makes us better. But we had all year to figure it out and some games were better than others. It was definitely a loss to overcome for sure.”
The longtime Thorndale coach also thanked his seniors, which include Baker, Dickerson, Robinson and Tristyn Buchanan for not only the way they played, but for how they carried themselves.
“This was a great group of seniors,” he said. “We didn’t have one team meeting, I didn’t have to call and talk to somebody about attitude or arguing. We had none of that, all focus was on basketball.”
“With Bailee, Abby, Kyndal and Tristyn, you can’t say enough about their character. Being a good athlete’s one thing, being a good basketball player’s another, but having good character and being good classmates, those are more important,” he added. “Because those are characteristics that will go with you through life. If you can’t guard somebody or can’t shoot, that ends when you graduate.”
The Lady Dogs end their season with a District 27-2A record of 8-4 and finished third overall.
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